doesn't it feel (like our time is running out)
by Marvelgeek42
Summary: The first time they meet is in September, 1951. The Asset was rented by the Red Room - under careful supervision - to train their assets.


**For _The Crownless Queen_ , I hope you like it!**

 **Word Count: 929**

* * *

 ** _doesn't it feel (like our time is running out)_**

* * *

 _Do you know what it is like to be unmade?_

 _Do you think I wanted to be pulled apart and reassembled the way they wanted it?_

Most people never have to ask these questions.

They aren't most people.

* * *

The first time the two of them meet is in September, 1951.

The Asset was rented by the Red Room - under careful supervision - to train their assets.

At the beginning of the course, there were twenty three students. All of them were girls and young women.

(Something deep, deep inside The Asset was horrified and disgusted.)

(The Asset ignored it.)

All of the students have an idea of what they are doing, some more than others.

One of the more competent ones is has been with the Red Room for five years now, it is to be expected.

(She was still alive after all.)

The Asset takes note of her. She is slender, like all of them, but her red hair makes the fourteen year old stand out just as much as her abilities.

* * *

The first time the two of them meet is in early April, 1954.

Natalia is sixteen years old and has long since perfected her seductive interrogation techniques.

The Asset is supposed to show her and the other five students of her year how to become a ghost. How to sneak in and out of places without anyone ever noticing that anyone had been there. Were it not for the corpses, that is.

(Of course they already know the basics.)

(The Asset is here to prefect that knowledge.)

The Asset had expected Natalia, with her bright red hair, to have the most trouble staying unnoticed when practising in the facility.

She was the best one by far.

(The Asset gets pulled from the mission after six weeks.)

(The next morning, Heinz Guderian was discovered dead.)

* * *

The first time the two of them meet is in November, 1963.

The Asset is surprised that someone else is sent along on a mission. That never happened before.

(He knows better than to voice his confusion.)

(The Handlers know what they are doing. They are not to be questioned.)

Their target is the most high-profile target there is.

Officially, no shooter is ever found.

(Unofficially, the Americans have someone they would like to see gone and there happens to be circumstantial evidence.)

* * *

They are sent on missions together frequently for seven years and seven months.

They have several other high profile targets.

(No one ever notices it was them.)

Then, Natalia gives The Asset a kiss when they are alone.

The Asset does not know what to do.

Natalia is the only one The Asset knows.

(The Handlers do not count.)

The Asset, _Yasha_ , returns the kiss.

* * *

They don't stop.

They do more.

They are discovered.

(There were two babies. Twins.)

(The Asset gets it out of the Red Room's hands.)

(They think the child died.)

* * *

The first time the two of them meet is in January, 1984.

They are on a mission.

Neither of them interacts more than they need to.

The Asset hears her muttering something under his breath.

It sounds almost like 'Yasha'.

(The Asset does not do anything regarding that fact.)

* * *

The first time (or is it?) the two of them meet is in October, 1990.

Natalia is breaking out of the Red Room and the Asset spots her.

She clearly has no permission to leave.

(The blood wasn't a hint, but the backpack was.)

(No one ever left with luggage.)

The Asset is on guard duty.

The Asset spots her.

The Asset doesn't do anything.

(The Handlers punish him for neglecting his tasks.)

* * *

The Handlers warn him about a redheaded woman, a traitor.

She cannot see him.

She works with the Americans.

She cannot be killed, at least, not yet.

She is too valuable to them.

(Something is wrong with that, but The Asset doesn't know what.)

* * *

The Asset sees her on missions.

She is good.

She feels...odd.

(The Chair is needed after every single one of those missions.)

(The Asset despises The Chair.)

(The Asset does not know what The Chair does.)

* * *

The first time the two of them meet is in May, 2014.

There is a man on the bridge.

He feels familiar, somehow.

He calls The Asset 'Bucky'.

( _Who the hell is Bucky?_ )

Then, The Asset sees the woman.

She sees The Asset.

Their eyes connect.

"Yasha?" she asks.

( _Who the hell is Yasha?_ )

(Why does it feel like The Asset should know this?)

* * *

They meet, not for the first time, in August, 2015.

David — he is no longer The Asset, but he is no longer Yasha either and James Buchanan Barnes had been dead for seventy years now — lets himself be found.

Both of them know that.

David is not sure how much he remembers and he confesses as much to Natasha.

"Do you remember Alexei and Tamar?" she asks.

David can tell they are important.

He doesn't remember who they are exactly, so Natasha tells him.

* * *

It turns out that Alexei hadn't been far from Natasha in the past five years or so. His name was changed, sure, but they know it is him.

(The DNA test certainly helped.)

Neither David nor Natasha ever tell him the truth.

(They don't tell anyone else, either.)

Tamar, _their daughter_ , however, was harder to find.

That doesn't mean they do not find her.

She lives in a small town in England with her own family.

Neither David nor Natasha ever interact with her.

(It is for the best of everyone.)

* * *

 **Please tell me what you think!**

 **~Marvelgeek42**


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